Action in Florence

Around the world, Airbnb hosts and guests are coming together to form local Home Sharing Clubs. They are mobilizing our community to advocate for clear rules in their cities. To date, more than 100 Home Sharing Clubs have been formed worldwide. More clubs are forming every week …

More than 100 hosts came together at Impact Hub Firenze earlier this month to launch the Florence Home Sharing Club. The enthusiastic crowd was committed to home sharing and, even more importantly, deeply in love with their beautiful city.

Florence home sharers want their voices heard. They invited several speakers to attend the first meeting, including leaders of Home Sharing Clubs in Milan, Bologna and Rome. They told personal stories about how home sharing has impacted their lives. They also discussed how the local club would take action to support the sharing economy and local businesses; in 2015, over 3,700 Airbnb hosts welcomed 364,000 guests to Florence. Their guests contributed €169m to the local business economy. You can learn more about the Florence community and other Italian cities by downloading this economic impact study.

Florence holds unique art and architectural masterpieces by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Masaccio, Giotto, Filippo Brunelleschi, Raffaello, Pontormo and many others. According to Unesco, 60% of the world’s most important works of art are located in Italy. Approximately half of these are in Florence. The city had an astonishing influence on the development of architecture and the fine arts in Italy and Europe. Florence hosts celebrated this influence by exchanging postcards of Florence and Tuscany.

“Florence celebrates human genius through its art treasures and it is a home for all mankind,” one host noted on the back of a postcard. “I want every visiting family to feel at home when they stay in our city,” he added.

Luca, a local organizer, highlighted the global dimension of the Home Sharing Club project and its mission of empowerment. Hosts invited Alessandro Tommasi, Public Policy Manager for Airbnb Italy, to discuss the current state of the tourism law revision process in Tuscany. The attendees were keen to learn more about home sharing laws. They are now planning to take action to defend every citizen’s right to share their home.

Hosts concluded the night by discussing ideas to promote sustainable tourism to their guests. Alessandra Zecchi, a representative from “Angeli del Bello” – a local NGO that fights for the aesthetic preservation of the city – talked about their mission. Members of the club plan to work with “Angeli del Bello” to knit together the diverse interests of the local institutions and promote small businesses. Florence hosts already have many innovative ideas to make the city a place where their guests feel at home.

Would like to join the Florence Home Sharing Club? Sign up here and meet other local hosts!